yomirig and ite Incidents, 




A PAPER 



RKAD BY 



M. HARDING, 



''''■■^^"^kfore; thu 



coming Valley Chapter, 

the American Revolution. 



ILKES-BARRE, PA, 
1901. 






Wyoming and its Incidents, 

A PAPER 

RKAD BY 

GARRICK M. HARDING, 

before; the 

Wyoming Valley Chapter, 
Daughters of the American Revolution. 



WILKES-BARRE, PA. 
1901. 






^ 



(\ 



5t- W/^Z/eci/; 



Il^q:TE.OID■u■CTIO]N^. 



(From the Wilkes-Barre Record.) 



"It is a frequent saying that the history of Wyoming has 
been written about so much that it has become threadbare. 
This is an error in three ways. First, new material is being 
constantly discovered; second, old ideas are undergoing 
modification, and third, there is always the opportunity for 
interpreting local history, — that is, the presentation of the 
philosophy of the narrative rather than the recounting of 
mere facts. It is this philosophizing which gives charm to 
any history. We become interested in studying causes and 
the effects which follow them. 

''Among the contributors to local history who have had 
a special gift for treating the facts in this philosophical man- 
ner is ex- Judge Garrick M. Harding. In the paper which 
follows, read by him before the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, November i8th, 1901, he interjects into a 
brief narrative of the early settlement of Wyoming an 
admirable study of the conflicting English charters to 
America — a conflict which cost Wyoming much treasure and 
blood — and he not only interests us with the story of the 
granting of the royal charters, but he gives us a picture of 
William Penn that is most fascinating. While the great 
Quaker is credited with being a good man in the main, he is 
yet shown to be none the less an enterprising colonist, not 
slow to resort to worldly methods to accomplish the ends he 
sought. 

"The pages of Wyoming history are stained with the 
annals of conflict between the rival claimants under Penn- 
sylvania and those under Connecticut, and it is not every- 
body who understands the real inwardness of that fierce 
struggle. Judge Harding's trained legal mind has enabled 
him to take the mass of literature on that subject and from 
it weave a concinct and easily understood narrative of what 



it was all about and how it was all ended. Our titles to 
land rest on the historic Decree of Trenton, by which a 
committee from Congress declared that Connecticut had no 
sufficient claim in the controversy over Wyoming, and that 
Pennsylvania was the rightful owner. Few descendants of 
the Connecticut claimants can bring themselves to admit that 
this was right, but Judge Harding — himself a descendant of 
an ill-fated Connecticut pioneer — is willing to grant that 
maybe it was all right and perhaps it was a material factor 
in the subsequent marvelous development of the portion of 
Pennsylvania in which our lot is cast. Judge Harding's 
narrative is certainly a most interesting one and readers will 
be abundantly repaid for familiarizmg themselves with the 
facts there so entertainingly presented." 




WYOMING AND ITS INCIDENTS. 



BY HON. G. M. HARDING. 



Of the original colonies, Connecticut was conceded to 
be among the first for order and pure government. Her 
people were exceptionally distinguished for learning and 
morality. They were enterprising, brave, hardy and indus- 
trious. The boundaries of the colony on the north and east 
having been permanently established and occupancy taken 
to the adjoiners, the attention of many of her people was 
turned to the supposed rights of the colony westward under 
the original charter of Charles II. granted April 20th, 1662. 
Literally construed, these rights were not limited by any 
boundary westward short of the "South Sea." The Indian 
claim, however, of the Six Nations to the Unds lying west 
of the Delaware River, though embraced within the charter, 
had always been recognized by the people of the colony not 
only as natural, but just. Its extinction was regarded as 
necessary, yet no contemplation of effecting this by conquest 
was ever entertained. On the contrary, the peaceful method 
of purchase at a price satisfactory to the natives, was the 
common determination. Accordingly an association was 
formed in July, 1753, by some eight or nine hundred New 
England people, m.ostly of Connecticut, however, with a 
view of attaining this end. The general afifairs of several of 
the British colonies, particularly with respect to Indian 
claims of territory, had been in great confusion for some 
.time previously, and hence for the purpose of adjustment, 
and with the assent of the English government, a species of 
Congress had been called to meet at Albany during the next 
ensuing year. Full representation seems to have been had 
at that Congress, as well by the colonies interested as by the 
Indians known then as the Six Nations. The greater por- 
tion of the territory now included within the boundaries of 
Pennsylvania, excepting such parts as had been purchased 
of the Indians by William Penn during his short stay of two 



years at Philadelphia, or from the summer of 1682 to the 
summer of 1684, was claimed by the natives, and their claim 
seems to have been undisputed. 

Prior to the assembling of this Congress, the associa- 
tion before referred to had taken the name of the Connecti- 
cut Susquehanna Company, and under that name, on July 
nth, 1754, in open treaty, and in presence of those repre- 
senting the Pennsylvania colony, a purchase was made of 
the Six Nations of a portion of the lands lying west of the 
Delaware River, and embraced within the original Connec- 
ticut Charter. It is not necessary here to recite in detail 
the boundaries of this purchase. They may be found in 
full, again and again, in the many histories of subsequent 
events growing out of that transaction. It is enough to say 
that the lands embraced in the purchase covered all of the 
Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys ; and further, that they 
were also within the boundaries of the later charter granted 
by Charles II. to William Penn, dated March 4th, 1681. 

It is equally true of all the grants of territory by the 
sovereigns of England in which is now the more northern 
section of the United States, that their respective boundaries 
were very indefinite, even impossible of certain or correct 
alignment. The grant by Charles I. in 1634, to Lord Balti- 
more, included not only the present State of Maryland, btit 
with respect to boundaries, its terms were so vague and 
uncertain that Lord Baltimore laid claim, both before and 
after the subsequent grant to William Penn, to almost the 
whole southern part of Pennsylvania. Personal interviews 
between his lordship and William Penn in this country, and 
appeals to official authority in England, alike failed to still 
the contention. Indeed, before a line was projected that 
permanently fixed the boundary between Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, both Lord Baltimore and William Penn had 
been m.any years lying in their graves. But without further 
reference to original royal grants, other than the Connecti- 
cut Charter and the Charter to William Penn, the former 
being nineteen years earlier than the latter, it would seem, 
apart from other considerations, that the legal Latin maxim, 



— 7 — 

prior in tempore, potior in jure — first in time, more power- 
ful in law — should have been recognized as conclusive of 
conflicting ownership under them, particularly as this doc- 
trine was enforced by the fact that, as far as the Wyoming 
and Lackawanna valleys were concerned, no possession 
whatever was taken, or attempted by any claimants under 
Penn's Charter, from its date up to 1762, a period of upwards 
of eighty years. On the other hand, as early as the year 
last mentioned, a distinct and intended permanent settlement 
was begun in Wyoming by claimants under the Connecticut 
Charter. 

A brief digression at this point with respect to William 
Penn may be pardoned. He was a man of many and emi- 
nent virtues, but yet he was no saint. Historians, except 
Lord Macaulay, and biographers, mostly, however, of 
Penn's religious faith, have dealt with his character and 
reputation more kindly, perhaps, than strict truth would 
seem to warrant. Born in comparative affluence, and liber- 
ally educated, he might have attained distinction in walks of 
life other than that which in early manhood became his 
choice. To the extreme disgust and great rage of his father, 
he joined a then downtrodden sect denominated Quakers. 
Some years afterward, paternal recognition was accorded. 
Under existing laws of Parliament at that time, Quakers, 
Puritans, Roman Catholics, and indeed all dissenters from 
the Established Church, were subjected to grievous oppres- 
sion. Tlie Puritans, to some extent, had already sought a 
haven on the shores of Massachusetts, where they could in- 
dulge in worship suited to their own notions. The Roman 
Catholics, following the lead of Lord Baltimore, had found 
comfort and the exercise of liberty of conscience within the 
distant Province of Maryland. The idea of like enjoyment 
in some f.iraway wilderness for Quakers, had long been en- 
tertained by George Fox and other leading men of Quaker 
faith. The project had not yet been possible of execution. 
It remained for Penn to bring to fruition what had long been 
only a hope. Penn's father had been for many years in the 
service of the crown. He was a naval officer, and ranked 



— 8 — 

as admiral. Charles II. was largely indebted to him. His 
salary as admiral had been unpaid for some time; besides, 
he had loaned the government sums of money for naval pur- 
poses, which likewise had been unpaid. He was a creditor, 
at the time of his death, of the crown to the extent of some 
sixteen thousand pounds. The exchequer of Charles II. at 
this time was in an empty condition. His court and his 
favorites were shamefully expensive. Payment in money to 
William Penn, the heir of the deceased admiral, was prac- 
tically an impossibility. 

Grants of great sections of country in the distant 
wilderness of North America had, on many previous occa- 
sions, been a characteristic of royal bounty, but in no in- 
stance thus far had grants of this character been made either 
for the payment of royal indebtedness, or for a direct money 
consideration. Penn was well acquainted with the financial 
condition of the crown. The idea of his people and of him- 
self that religious liberty could best and only be attained by 
a retreat into possessions of the crown far away in foreign 
lands, took a ne\y and vigorous hold in Quaker thought. 
The means of acquiring, not as a matter of favor but of 
right, the requisite territory for the common purpose, Penn 
conceived he possessed. Accordingly, in 1680, he made his 
petition to the king, asking for a grant of land in America 
in payment of the indebtedness of sixteen thousand pounds, 
describing in his petition the territory thus : "Bounded on 
the east by the Delaware River, on the west limited as Mary- 
land, and northwards as far as plantable." This description 
was broad enough certainly to carry his northerly line well 
on towards the North Pole; it was certainly broad enough 
to compass the whole territory lying west of the Delaware 
River, a large portion of which, nineteen years before, had 
been covered by the grant known as the Connecticut Char- 
ter. When the petition came before a committee of the 
privy council, the fact was seen and recognized that a grant 
so unlimited northward, and so indefinite in other directions, 
would infringe upon not only the earlier grant to Lord Balti- 
more, but the still earlier New England grants. The wrong 



— 9 — 

of this, no matter how well understood, had but passing con- 
sideration ; the liquidation of the king's indebtedness was of 
higher moment ; the wish of Charles II. and of his brother, 
the Duke of York, likely soon to become James II. could not 
be overlooked ; Penn's petition prevailed ; over forty thou- 
sand square miles of territory passed to his ownership, possi- 
bly, in description not in exact conformity with his petition, 
but practically so. On the 4th of March, 1681, the king 
affixed his signature to the grant, and upon it also the Great 
Seal of England was impressed. Thus was outlined what 
is now one of the foremost States of the American Union. 

In a short time after Penn received his charter he sent 
an agent across the Atlantic to take possession of his new 
estate. With a view of securing control of Delaware Bay, 
and also of the Delaware River to its confluence with the 
ocean, thus enabling him more successfully to antagonize 
the sweeping claims of Lord Baltimore, Penn added to his 
domain, by purchase from the Duke of York, all the land 
now embraced in the State of Delaware. He made no haste, 
himself, to go to his distant possessions, remaining in Eng- 
land until the summer of 1682. Preparing a suitable con- 
stitution for the government of his province, occupied his 
attention meantime. He sent over commissioners, however, 
who laid oiit roads and performed other duties essential to 
the proper beginning of a great settlement. Indeed, his 
commissioners themselves laid out the City of Philadelphia, 
following doubtless such instructions as were possible for a 
man to make who had never looked upon the location and 
its surroundings. 

Penn's first voyage to his province was a long one. He 
did not reach Philadelphia until the autumn of 1682. After 
his arrival there he made some changes in the location of the 
city, but its general features he allowed to remain as ar- 
ranged by his commissioners. 

During the summer of 1683 Penn made three purchases 
from the Indians. One of these gave rise to what is known 
as his "memorable treaty." Benjamin West, the artist, 
painted the scene purely from imagination. The whole 



10 — 

affair is, however, destitute of historic authenticity or fact. 
It had the effect nevertheless of making Penn famous 
throughout both the Old and the New World. The bargain 
between the Indians and Penn was probably characterized 
by strictly fair dealing, accompanied by mutual promises of 
peace and lasting good will. It furnished, besides, an ex- 
ample which was observed in the future dealings between 
Penn's successors and the Indians for upwards of seventy 
years afterwards. Indeed, savage outbreaks on the part of 
the Indians were unknown in Pennsylvania until the begin- 
ning of the French and Indian wars in 1755. 

During the two years of Penn's residence in his 
province at- this time, he was of inestimable service to his 
people. Plis attention to their interests was constant. He 
spent a small portion of his time in traveling over limited 
sections of his domain, going once only into the interior no 
further than the Susquehanna River, probably, in the vicin- 
ity of Columbia, and once up the Delaware River as far as 
Easton. Trouble about the boundary between Maryland 
and Pennsylvania increased between Lord Baltimore and 
Penn. The latter became greatly uneasy. No adjustment 
seemed possible through personal interview. Each had 
determined on an appeal to the proper English authorities. 
Lord Baltimore had already sailed for England. Penn fol- 
lowed him in the autumn of 1684. During the winter of 
1684-5 Charles II. died, and was succeeded by his brother, 
the Duke of York, as James II. Penn at once took position 
as a courtier at court, and continued thus for five years, or 
until James II. fled t.") France in 1688. To the amazement 
of Penn's friends, Quakers and others, both in England and 
Pennsylvania, he became a supporter of the despotism of 
James II., although the latter was a persistent and unrelent- 
ing foe to religious liberty. The attempt to Romanize Pro- 
testant England was the chief feature of the king's policy ; 
the result was the loss of his crown. The coming in of 
William III. was the end of Penn's position as a favorate 
courtier. His intimates and associates during the short 
reign of James 11. were, to a great extent, some of the most 



— IT — 

infamous men of the time. His loyalty to the new king was 
more than doubtful. He was suspected of conniving for the 
return and restoration of James H., and was arrested more 
than once charged with treason. In one instance, he was so 
fearful of arrest and conviction that he went into hiding, 
and so continued for three years. At last he appeared open- 
ly, was arrested, tried and acquitted. The evidence adduced 
against him justified at most nothing greater than violent 
suspicion. Amongst his many other troubles about this 
time the government of his Pennsylvania province was taken 
from him by the crown. This was probably done more as a 
war m^easure than as a direct punishment of Penn. A dis- 
tant colony of Quakers might have been a too tempting 
prize for the French, with whom the English were then at 
clash of arms. The province was returned to him, how- 
ever, by William HI., in 1694. Penn was rarely ever idle in 
the midst of his difficulties. He went about doing good, 
preaching to his people in England and in Ireland. He had 
led an extravagant life, for a Quaker, while he was a 
courtier at the Court of James 11. , thus wasting his substance 
largely. His anxiety to return to Pennsylvania was great, 
but the means of doing so were wanting. He applied to his 
people at Philadelphia for a loan of ten thousand pounds. 
His application was refused. In the autumn of 1699 he 
was enabled, through other sources, to leave the shores of 
England westward. Great changes had been wrought 
meantime, as well in Pennsylvania as in England. His 
colony was fortunate in his return. He instituted good 
works, giving his whole time and energy to the furtherance 
of the interests and welfare of his people. He visited var- 
ious sections of his own territory, and also parts of New 
Jersey, New York and Maryland, scattering friendships and 
good will wherever he went. In October, 1701, he left his 
province, never to return again. The following year Will- 
iam III. died. He was succeeded by Queen Anne. Penn 
resumed his position at her court as a courtier, but his 
former influence in that capacity under her father was gone. 
Besides, he staggered at this time under a huge load of in- 



— 12 

debtedness. His creditors begap to pursue him. His sur- 
viving children, by his first wife, gave him anxiety and 
sorrow. William, the son,, went to the bad apace. Letitia, 
the daughter, had become the wife of a man who brought 
neither comfort nor satisfaction to her father. One of 
Penn's creditors, a supposed honest Quaker, but in reality 
otherwise, brought suit against him, recovered judgment, 
sold away from him the Pennsylvania province, leased it 
afterward to him, sued him again for unpaid rents, recov- 
ered another judgment against him and sent him to a 
debtor's prison for a period of nine months. The rapacious 
fellow finally died, but his heirs claimed the Pennsylvania 
province, and sought to have governmental recognition ac- 
corded them as rulers of it. A compromise was finally 
effected with them by Penn's friends in his behalf, by the 
payment of seven thousand six hundred pounds. Thus the 
province was restored to him. 

In 1713 Penn was stricken by mortal disease. Before 
his affliction reached fatal determination he had completed 
an arrangement to sell Pennsylvania to the crown for the 
sum of eighteen thousand one hundred and fifty pounds. 
There had been paid on the sale one thousand pounds, and a 
deed had been prepared for execution. Penn's infirmity of 
mind stayed the completion of the transaction. He had be- 
come so far a mental wreck that proper execution of the 
deed was impossible. He died of paralysis in 1718. His 
second wife, who, as a maiden, was Hannah Callowhill, took 
charge of affairs after the death of her husband. She was 
a most excellent and lovely wife and mother, and a business 
woman of rare capacity. Under her care and management 
the heirs of Penn became the recipients of great wealth. 
The father, however, during his lifetime, never received any 
monetary gain from the original grant of Charles H. On 
the contrary, according to a letter written by him towards 
the close of his career, he fixes the excess of expenditures in 
connection with the province over and above his receipts 
from it, at thirty thousand pounds. 



— 13 — 

William Penn was certainly a most extraordinary char- 
acter, but summing all his faults and setting opposite the 
good he accomplished, the conviction follows irresistibly that 
he was one of the great men of his day. 

I am indebted for the material of this brief sketch of 
Penn to Macaulay's History of England, to some of the 
early and late biographies of Penn, but especially to the 
more recent work of Sydney George Fisher, entitled "The 
True William Penn." 

But to recur to Wyoming : It is difficult to determine 
with certainty the exact location of the improvement first 
begun by some thirty of the Connecticut people in 1762. It 
was, however, just below Wilkes-Barre, probably along the 
present Careytown road. The native trees at that point — 
and indeed generally throughout the valley — were mostly 
small yellow pines. Whether a larger growth had in past 
ages preceded them is but a matter of conjecture. At all 
events, little difficulty in felling and clearing away whatever 
timber then standing upon the ground, was encountered. A 
respectable acreage was planted with corn, and larger blocks 
were sowed with winter grain, chiefly with wheat. Tem- 
porary shelter was constructed for then existing needs, but 
the building of houses and barns was not attempted. Later 
on, in the fall of the year, these original beginners returned 
to their eastern homes, intending of course to come back in 
the following spring, and to bring with them their families 
and their limited household goods, together with such addi- 
tional companions as might choose to seek homes in the new 
and fertile lands. The spring of 1764 opened early and 
favorably. Large additions were made to the number of 
settlers of the previous year. All brought along their whole 
belongings, including such stock and teams as they pos- 
sessed. The summer was propitious. Broad acres were 
rapidly subdued; houses and barns, of course of primitive 
character, were erected; products of the fields were abun- 
dant; plenty and comfort were not only the then present 
reward, but their continuance in the future seemed well 
assured. 



— 14 — 

This improvement did not escape the notice of the 
Proprietary Government at Philadelphia; and although no 
interference was attempted during the summer of 1763, yet 
as early as September of that year arrangements were made 
there to send forward a force to drive off the New Eng- 
landers, and to destroy the ripening corn and recently sowed 
winter grains. The dastardly purpose did not, however, 
become necessary. On the afternoon of the 15th of October 
following, an unexpected large body of savages swooped 
down upon the unarmed workers in the fields, and upon the 
affrighted w^omen and children around the firesides. The 
rifle, the spear, the tomahawk and the scalping knife made 
quick and bloody work with this hive of peace and industry. 
Few of the settlers, less of the women and children, escaped. 
The bodies of the slain were without burial ; they became 
food for wild beasts; their bones were scattered along the 
paths of panthers, catamounts and wolves. 

It is unnecessary to refer in detail to the many fierce 
and bloody conflicts, begun after 1763, and continued up to 
1 77 1, between the Connecticut claimants on the one side, 
and the Pennsylvania claimants on the other. They are 
fully set forth in the pages of the several local histories that 
have place in the private libraries of most of us, and, indeed 
in the general libraries throughout the land. It is enough 
to say that, up to the date last mentioned, victory attended 
the New Englanders in so far as possession of the Wyoming 
and Lackawanna valleys were concerned. Had Connecticut 
furnished arms and munitions of war to her people engaged 
in these conflicts during this period of eight years, the har- 
vest of sorrow and death would have been less abundant. 
Coimecticut, however, did nothing of the kind as a govern- 
ment. She waited until the valor of her sons had driven 
off the competing foe. Then, and not till then, was govern- 
mental control assumed on her part over the territory thus 
won. And even then the assumption was not full and direct 
in character. Practically the victors, under the m.ore im- 
mediate supervision of the Connecticut Susquehanna Com- 
pany, carried on whatever civil government there was in 



— 15 — 

Wyoming for three years afterwards. In 1774, Connecti- 
cut, however, came more directly to the front. The towns 
and County of Westmoreland were organized, and repre- 
sentation in the General Assembly of the colony was accord- 
ed. But defense against the continued murderous attacks 
of the savages, and likewise against the further encroach- 
ments of the Pennsylvania claimants, was left to the settlers 
alone. 

Such was the general feature here until the rising of a 
war cloud began to overspread all the colonies alike. The 
government of England was preparing to strike a blow 
which portended the destruction of American liberty. The 
issue of course outmeasured all other issues. Hand in hand 
all the colonies went forth to meet it. In April, 1775, the 
clash of arms began at Lexington. Bunker Hill followed 
two months later. Soldiers were enlisted in Wyoming to 
do battle in the ranks of the Continental Army, and every 
one of them was credited to the quota of Connecticut. 
Wyoming was a settlement then far on the frontier. Her 
power of self-protection had been drawn away to distant 
fields of conflict. The situation had continued thus for 
three preceding years. In the meantime a triple enemy, the 
British, the Tories and the Indians, had gathered for her 
destruction little more than a hundred miles northward. A 
few days march, and this combined force was within her 
boundaries. The fatal 3d of July, 1778, followed. The 
mournful memories which had their origin in the events of 
that terrible day will never die. 

The great struggle, known as the War of the Revolu- 
tion, had its termination at the field of Yorktown on the 
nth of October, 1781. The Proprietary Government at 
Philadelphia became merged in the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania on the 27th of November, 1799. This merger 
brought no relief to Wyoming. On the contrary, it may be 
said that it brought a multiplication of woes to Wyoming. 
The State of Pennsylvania entertained the fixed opinion that 
Penn's Charter excluded all claimed rights under the Con- 
necticut Charter. Speculators in land swarmed in Philadel- 



— 16 — 

phia, and, indeed, in other localities within the State. To- 
gether with the Pennsylvania authorities they formed a plan 
whereby, as they conceived, a peaceful settlement, favorable 
to their interests, and at the same time destructive to all 
rights under the Connecticut charter, could be reached. It 
consisted of an offer to Connecticut to refer the whole mat- 
ter to a commission, to be appointed by Congress. The 
offer was accepted by Connecticut without first conferring 
with the settlers in Wyoming. The delegates in Congress 
from the twO' States mutually agreed upon the members to 
constitute the commission, and they were forthwith 
appointed. All of them were honorable men. Five of 
their number, constituting a quorum, met at Trenton in the 
autumn of 1782, They spent upwards of forty days in 
examining the questions presented by the agents selected by 
Pennsylvania on the one side, and Connecticut on the other. 
The presumption is violent that, during all this time, a ma- 
jority of the commission was constantly surrounded by a 
strong Pennsylvania atmosphere that had been wafted up 
the Delaware to Trenton. No witnesses at all were called 
from Wyoming. On the 30th of December, 1782, an award 
was reached and delivered, known since that time at the 
"Decree of Trenton." It was, substantially, in these words : 
"We are unanimously of opinion that Connecticut has no 
right to the lands in controversy, but that they belong to the 
State of Pennsylvania." No reasons whatever were assign- 
ed for the decree, very probably because no warrantable rea- 
sons existed. It was a decree springing doubtless from the 
views of a majority of the commission as to public policy, 
and from previously conceived ideas of right in the prem- 
ises. But unanimity in the finding was not a fact. There 
was a minority in the board, but whether of two to three or 
four to one, was never known either by the contestants then, 
or by the public afterwards, A letter written by one of the 
most prominent members of the commission in 1796 threw a 
glimpse of light on the question. The language of the let- 
ter is thus : "That the reasons for the determination should 



— 17 — 

never be given ; that the minority should concede the deter- 
mination as the unanimous opinion of the court." 

The decision of so important a case was heraled 
throughout the country with all the speed possible at that 
day. The officials of Connecticut, and the horde of specula- 
tors at Flartford and New Haven, when the news reached 
them, v/ere astounded; their confidence that the finding at 
Trenton would be favorable to them had all along been solid 
and unshakeable ; their disappointment at the end was of the 
highest possible character; jurisdiction of the State west- 
ward of the Delaware River was lost ; financial gloom over- 
spread the speculators. The settlers in Wyoming heard of 
the decree with sorrow intermingled with rage. It meant 
to them, one and all, the loss of home and fireside ; it meant 
to them poverty and destitution. 

But a few days intervened afterwards, when the State 
authorities at Philadelphia were invoked to send a force to 
Wyoming, numerous enough and strong enough to dislodge 
and drive away every person who asserted claim under Con- 
necticut. Like applications continued to be made for more 
than a year succeeding, and though many times granted, still 
the "Yankees," as they were called, maintained the ground 
resolutely and defiantly. They argued — and not without 
reason — that the tribunal at Trenton was erected without 
notice to them or desire on their part; that they were not 
parties before it in any legitimate sense, and therefore v/ere 
not bound by its decree. More than that, they exhibited a 
determination to fight to the last in defense of their rights. 
Henceforth they met every force launched against them with 
a courage that at all times deserved success. Conflicts were 
variable and often bloody. Approaches into the valley by 
their antagonists in arms were often made, but generally 
accompanied by a show of civil authority in the shape of a 
justice of the peace to issue warrants, and a sheriff or coroner 
to execute them, and once upon the ground, arrest and de- 
portation of the settlers to imprisonment in distant jails 
often occurred. An instance of this character may be briefly 
mentioned. In the summer of 1784 a force under the imme- 



— I8 — 

diate direction of one Alexander Patterson and the some- 
what notorious Col. John Armstrong, both in the service and 
pay of Pennsylvania claimants — the former a man of ordi- 
nary intelligence, but gorged with insolence and an adept 
at cruelty, the latter a man of marked ability, but treacherous 
and untrustworthy — forcibly and violently dispossessed one 
hundred and fifty families in and near the vicinity of Wyo- 
ming, setting fire to their dwellings, and avowing the further 
purpose of dislodging and driving off every other person in 
the valley v.'ho claimed adversely to Pennsylvania. This 
' outrage aroused the settlers to the commission of retaliatory 
acts of violence upon Pennsylvania claimants residing in 
other places near at hand. The whole region round about 
v/as in dangerous disorder. The Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania ordered the civil authorities of Northumber- 
land County, accompanied, as usual, by a justice of the 
peace, a sheriff and a coroner, to go forward at once and 
quell the disorder. The settlers learned that this seeming 
civil force was to be strengthened by a body of armed men 
recently gathered east of the Delaware River, and in the pay, 
of course, of Pennsylvania land claimants. Accordingly 
Captain John Swift of Kingston, a brave and judicious man, 
called around him thirty picked men, and on the morning of 
the 1st of August all started forth to intercept and drive 
back the additional enemy. They hurriedly passed over the 
Sullivan road, reaching a plateau across the Lehigh River 
and on the highland about two miles northwesterly from 
Locust Hill. There they encamped in the high timber and 
a thick undergrowth of laurel. The day was not nearly 
spent, and Captain Swift and Waterman Baldwin, his chief 
aid, pushed on to reconnoiter and discover, if possible, the 
enemy. Success attended the effort. They found them 
just going into camp at the spring which bursts out at the 
northwesterly foot of Locust Hill. The ground there was 
slightly undulating and somewhat narrow. On the south- 
westerly side, a large and impassable tamarack swamp jutted 
up along the base of Locust Hill, leaving only a space wide 
enough for the Sullivan road. This road passed in a north- 



— 19 — 

westerly direction towards Wyoming for about a quarter of 
a mile, and then down a small depression, through which 
the waters of the sv/amp found their way to the Lehigh. On 
the opposite side the road ascended a short and sharp eleva- 
tion to a flat or level spot of ground densely overgrown with 
timber and laurel. The swamp made it impossible to pass 
northwestward except along the road and through the hol- 
low or narrow depression at the foot of the hill. Swift and 
Baldwin selected this point for the proposed attack the next 
day. They returned then to the camp of their comrades, 
whom they found cooking a slim supper over fires smothered 
and practically smokeless. On the morning following Cap- 
tain Swift and his party were by daylight at the selected 
position of the previous afternoon. They had not long to 
wait. Swift, with half the number of his men, took his 
stand in the thicket on one side of the Sullivan road, and 
Baldwin, with the other half, on the opposite side. Music 
was soon struck up by the enemy as they left their camp, 
marching tov\?ards Wyoming in number far in excess of 
Captain Swift's force. The depression in the road was 
reached, the small creek carrying the waters of the swamp 
to the Lehigh was crossed, when thirty rifle cracks resound- 
ed from the thicket a few rods in front and above them. 
Several of the advancing force were wounded ; the unhurt at 
once sought the shelter of adjacent undergrowth, and formed 
in as complete order of battle as was possible amidst the sur- 
roundings. Again and again the enemy fired into the under- 
growth ahead of them whence came the first and rapidly 
continued shots of yet unseen adversaries. At last a charge 
was determined upon ; the whole undisabled part of the force 
rushed towards the top of the rising ground ; it was promptly 
met by Captain Swift and his comrades ; the view was less 
encumbered now than it had been previously; one of the 
advancing force, Jacob Everett, fell dead; the remainder 
fled precipitately along the Sullivan road southeasterly, 
scarcely stopping until they were safely beyond even the 
sound of a rifle. There were several of Captain Swift's men 
wounded, none of them severely. A much larger number of 



— 20 — 

their assailants were wonnded also, but not severely enough 
to impede a hurried rush back towards Easton. The Kings- 
ton party did not reach home until the day following. The 
return march was somewhat delayed by aid necessarily given 
to such as had not escaped the moderate sting of the enemy's 
bullets. 

Within a week afterwards, Col. Armstrong — continuing 
in the service of Pennsylvania land holders — appeared in 
Wyoming with a force numbering upwards of four hundred, 
and issued a proclamation declaring that he came in the 
name of the Commonwealth, as a commissioner of peace, to 
restrain further violence in all quarters and from all sources, 
and promising justice and protection to all concerned. The 
inevitable justice of the peace, Alexander Patterson, was 
also on hand. The "Yankee" leaders, though distrustful of 
Armstrong's good faith, grounded their arms, as did also the 
forces under their control. Armstrong at once had his fol- 
lowers seize the arms thus gounded, and the arrest of the 
disarmed soldiers forthwith followed. Every one of the 
Locust Hill party was put in irons, and next day the whole 
of them were handcuffed, tied by twos to a long rope, and 
then driven like beasts over the mountains, along the Sulli- 
van road, and lodged in the jail at Easton. Some of them 
m.ade their escape on the way thither, and some of them 
afterwards escaped from the jail. Eleven of them, how- 
ever, were kept in prison several months awaiting trial on 
the charge of murder — the killing of Jacob Everett at Locust 
Hill. An indictment embodying the charge was finally pre- 
sented to the grand jury of Northampton County; the 
jurors made short work of it ; they immediately ignored the 
bill, and the prisoners were discharged. While they were 
held in prison the friends of the man who fell at Locust Hill 
communicated the information that he was not an enlisted 
man of the party marching to Wyoming to aid in the oppres- 
sion of the settlers ; but, on the contrary, that he was a firm 
sympathizer with the latter, and had accompanied several of 
his acquaintances who were members of the enlisted in- 
vaders, simply for the purpose of seeing the valley, and of 



21 

ascertaining in person the real and true extent of the out- 
rages alleged to be in constant perpetration there by Penn- 
sylvania claimants and land speculators. This information, 
whether true or false, produced a strong impression on the 
prisoners, who, when returning to their homes at Wyoming, 
as they reached the location of the Locust Hill fight, each 
placed a stone on the spot where Everett fell. And during 
several of the after years, whenever any of them traveled to 
and fro over the Sullivan road, an additional stone was in- 
variably placed on the pile thus previously begun. Fifty- 
two years ago, when I first passed by the place, the heap or 
mound of stones had reached the size of a small hay-cock. 
In more recent years, however, the land has been purchased 
by strangers who have no interest in the early affairs at 
Wyoming. In clearing off an adjacent field for agricultural 
uses a huge pile of stones has resulted, and now covers the 
spot. 

At the same time when the arrest of Captain Swift's 
men was made, some fifty others of the settlers were also 
arrested. For some days they were shut up in bams and 
outhouses, and an armed guard was assigned to watch over 
them. They finally were tied with cords and led off to the 
jail at Sunbury, in Northumberland County, where they re- 
mained for some length of time. They were never tried, but 
when, in the minds of their persecutors, the proper time had 
arrived, they were discharged. 

The Assembly of Pennsylvania, under the first consti- 
tution of the State, was decidedly prejudiced against the 
Connecticut settlers. The latter were looked upon as a law- 
less class of adventurers who had taken possession of a 
large and valuable territory of land, to which, as matter of 
both law and fact, they had actually no right at all. It was 
the duty, therefore, of the State to dispossess them at all 
hazards and at any cost. Force, both military and civil, was 
to be used for that purpose. Upon this theory the officials 
of the State acted for a series of years. Experience at last 
taught them not only that they had misjudged the "Yankees" 
but that the State, with all her force, civil and military, was 



22 

unequal to the task either of dispossessing them, or of driv- 
ing them away. ConciHation was then attempted. Legisla- 
tive acts were passed, called "Confirming Acts" practically 
impossible of observance on the part of the settlers. A later 
act was ultimately passed, offering a species of compensa- 
tion to Connecticut claimants who had entered upon lands 
prior to the Trenton decree, but for the many who purchased 
after that event, divisions of lots, small or large, according 
to the schedule of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company, 
and made homes and valuable improvements upon them, 
there was no relief ; their loss v^^as absolute. 

A large number of the settlers, however, perhaps a 
majority, particularly those who were worn down with suf- 
fering and hopes deferred, at last concluded to accept the 
offer made by Pennsylvania, and begin life anew. There 
was an almost equally as large a number who took an oppo- 
site view, and who were not only willing to continue the 
common contest inaugurated years before, and still existing, 
but to fight on by themselves to the death for what seemed 
to them their just rights. At the head of the latter party 
was Col. John Franklin, justly styled the "Hero of Wyo- 
ming." He kept alive the warlike sentiments of the many 
who would "do or die" in his lead. He made repeated visits 
to Connecticut to confer with the Connecticut Susquehanna 
Company. Through his efforts the company had enlisted 
another notable man. Gen. Ethan Allen, the "Hero of Ticon- 
deroga," in their service ; a service, too, that properly desig- 
nated, meant nothing less than war. The scheme undoubt- 
edly was to carve out another State in Pennsylvania, con- 
sisting of the territory as originally claimed under the Con- 
necticut Charter. The situation of Pennsylvania at that time, 
both in a military and financial sense, was by no means one 
of unexampled strength, besides the people all along her 
northern and eastern border counties more or less sympath- 
ized with the Connecticut claimants ; hence, it is at least 
possible that the scheme referred to might have been at- 
tended with success. Pennsylvania had, however, at the 
time a citizen and resident at Wyoming, Col. Timothy Pick- 



— 23 — 

ering, a man of great ability and experience. He saw the 
danger that was at hand, and knew well the source from 
which it originated. A remedy had to be applied forthwith, 
otherwise civil war — father against son, and brother against 
brother, the saddest of all spectacles — was imminent. Ac- 
cordingly he caused the prompt arrest of Col. Franklin, 
though no overt act had yet been committed by the latter; 
he had Franklin hurried away to Philadelphia, and im- 
prisoned there for many months. The home leader being 
thus disposed of, his adherents and compeers gradually join- 
ed their former associates in the acceptance of Pennsylvania's 
offer. Peace was the result; prosperity followed apace. 

And, after all now, ought we not to honor the memory 
of William Penn for his purchase of a vast domain, even 
though he knew at the time that a large portion of it had 
previously been granted to others and belonged to them? 
Ought we not to pardon the commission at Trenton, though 
they pronounced, possibly, an unjust decree? Ought we not 
to excuse Col. Pickering for the arrest and imprisonment of 
the "Hero of Wyoming?" Surely, the result of the first two 
of these events, and, probably, of the third also, the Great 
State of Pennsylvania exists to-day, unshorn of a single acre 
originally within the grant to Penn. 



